Gillum concedes after recount in Florida
Democrat gives up governor’s race to GOP’s DeSantis
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee and mayor of Tallahassee, conceded the Florida governor’s race Saturday to Ron DeSantis, a former Republican congressman closely allied to President Donald Trump, saying he was satisfied with a recount that had him trailing by about 34,000 votes.
DeSantis declared victory on election night this month, and Gillum announced he was conceding the race at the time. But he re-entered the race a week ago, under pressure from staff members and allies in organized labor, after the Florida secretary of state’s office declared an automatic recount.
“We promised to fight until every vote was counted, and obviously we are now closing out the hand recount phase,” Gillum said on Facebook Live on Saturday, standing next to his wife. “R. Jai and I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Mr. DeSantis on becoming the next governor of the great state of Florida. This has been the journey of our lives.”
Gillum has not yet called the governor-elect, a spokesman for DeSantis said. But DeSantis responded to Gillum on Twitter, accepting his concession anew.
“This was a hard-fought campaign,” DeSantis wrote. “Now it’s time to bring Florida together.”
Even Trump, who days before the election referred to Gillum on Twitter as a “thief,” complimented the Democrat hours before his concession, congratulating him for his “really tough and competitive race.”
In a nod to the stressful 11 days after Election Day, Gillum said the state would have to look at how it conducts elections. “We need to update Florida’s elections system and bring it into the 21st century,” he said.
The race between the two young and energetic politicians — DeSantis, 40, a Trump acolyte, and Gillum, 39, running to be Florida’s first black governor — was widely seen as a proxy battle between competing ideological visions of the country’s future.
DeSantis, a Harvard- and Yaleeducated former Navy legal officer at Guantanamo Bay, rose to national prominence as an energetic advocate for the president on Fox News. In Gillum, voters were presented in many ways with DeSantis’ opposite: He embraced liberal positions that thrilled the Democratic Party’s activist base.
Gillum said on Saturday that he remained committed to pushing for societal change — if not as the next governor, then as an advocate. “Stay tuned,” he said. “There will be more to come.”